Robert 'Three Homes' Jenrick's Planning White Paper looks clearly designed as a mechanism for ushering in what Prof. Guy Standing calls 'The Privatisation of the Commons' even while this Tory Government's response to the Tory Part being fined by the Electoral Commission is to set about the scrapping of that body.(1)
I believe that in response, we should be more pro-active and concerted in our actions as citizens, by getting better informed and responding en masse to what is designed as a whitewashing exercise by increasingly unrepresentative and over-centralised Big Government in league with global profiteers.
So while this Web Log page may be published on Sunday, 13 September 2020, I shall be adding to it over the course of the 'consultation period' that lasts until 29 October 2020:
but
whereas the Tory Government says that the Electoral Commission "is
answerable to no-one," Private Eye, 11-24 September 2020, p7 points out
that a likely cue for that 'consultation' was Electoral Commission
fining the Tory Party for breaching General Election spending limits.
The MailOnline -- and BBC Gardeners' World -- report:
Hypocrites! Alan Titchmarsh blasts green campaigners who block pave
their gardens or swell their carbon footprint by eating out-of-season
fruit and veg
He said saving planet is not matter solely for land management and industry
He took aim at those who may criticise the Government for not doing enough
Titchmarsh, 70, also attacked those who buy fruit in the winter months
Alan Titchmarsh has criticised green
activists who lecture others about the environment but then block-pave
their own gardens or buy imported strawberries in January.
The
TV gardener said saving the planet is not a matter solely for
agricultural land management and industry, but for individuals who can
do more to 'make a difference to the health of planet Earth'.
'Those
of us who cherish that bit of land that comes with our houses have a
duty of care that is every bit as vital as that incumbent on the owners
of vast estates,' he told BBC Gardeners' World magazine.
He took aim at those who may criticise the Government for not doing enough to curb global warming and climate change, in particular Extinction Rebellion protesters, yet do not do enough themselves domestically.
'I hope that none of the Extinction Rebellion protesters has a block-paved front garden,' he said.
Note the difference between the headline's "green campaigners who block their gardens" and Titchmarsh's, "I hope that none of the Extinction Rebellion protesters has a block-paved garden."
Alan Titchmarsh's income is largely built around his persona as gardener and TV broadcaster, and he has gone on from that to fronting advertising for Sun Life Funeral Plans https://www.sunlife.co.uk/funeral-planning/funeral-plans/
Sun Life Guaranteed Funeral Plan is fronted by Alan Titchmarsh who says it's
"One of the most affordable ways to cover a funeral."
We might ask how much he is making from that promotion in addition to his income from BBC broadcasting that notoriously showers high salaries on presenters.
I would add that a great many Extinction Rebellion younger supporters have not been taught gardening as a basic skill but they do realise that government policies have let climate crises fester.
We live in the legacy of how the robber barons and Enclosures Acts that helped carve the way to capitalism in which people lose touch with the land. As people have lost touch with the land, we have become more dependent upon others' produce via an increasingly global market, and that was one of the driving forces of the Industrial Revolution going hand in hand with British colonisation of other lands and import-export arrangements.
If capitalism is the root cause, ecosocialism is the antidote
I especially welcome the comment below from 'Unknown', and point out that comments submitted anonymously are not altogether ruled out for their anonymity:
I remember Alan Titchmarsh writing in the Radio Times about a decade ago
questioning the science of climate change, trotting out the tired old
cliche that weather has always been variable. He and others in high
profile positions (eg David Bellamy) who have questioned climate science
over the years have done more to damage our chances of keeping global
warming to a safe level than any number of XR activists who might buy
fruit out of season or have a paved front garden.
Google search link "alan titchmarsh" "climate change denial"
The following search link was created by using keywords "alan titchmarsh" "climate change denial"
NB: Use of all lower case letters as above in a Google search is quite acceptable, even when using 'proper names'; and quotation marks are a handy device for ensuring that the exact phrase or name combination is located.
“The commons have been eroded by
neglect, in recent times accelerated by budget cuts due to austerity... Often, the erosion has resulted from the deliberate neglect,
part of the strategy adopted by the early Thatcherites in which services
and industries were starved of investment in order to induce public
indifference to, and support for, their privatisation.”
These headings caught my eye in the past couple of days, and I take this opportunity to share them with you now to emphasise the dangers of deregulation, or 'regulation by the market'.
ONE of the most
controversial projects in Camden’s Community Investment Programme
collection of schemes has been taken over by partners in the Far East
looking to capitalise on a tower of luxury flats.
How the new tower will look
The
council has levered in investment for new facilities for Edith Neville
Primary School, whose site had fallen into disrepair, and nearly 40 new
council homes by allowing a development which will dramatically change
the skyline in Somers Town.
Hong Kong-based
investment company Prime Pacific and the ED Group Holding, based in the
UK and Europe, have “formed a strategic joint venture” to work on
residential developments in London and have exchanged contracts on the
22-storey tower project.
It will feature 54
private apartments which are already being promoted with the promise of
panoramic views and its proximity to the railwaylands regeneration in
King’s Cross site....
The second is from London School of Economics International Inequalities Institute:
WATCH 'Plunder of the Commons: a manifesto for sharing public wealth' With Professor Guy Standing, David Lammy MP and Caroline Lucas MP
Accelerated by Margaret Thatcher and then even more so in the austerity
era, our Commons have been depleted illegitimately. The commons belong
to all commoners, and include the natural resources, inherited social
amenities and services, our cultural inheritance, the institutions of
civil common law and the knowledge commons. The rights of commoners were
first established in the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest in
1217.
This presentation shows how all forms of commons have been taken in the
neo-liberal era, through enclosure, commodification, privatisation and,
most shockingly, colonisation, highlighting how this has increased
inequality. It concludes by outlining the key components of a 44-Article
Charter of the Commons that could be an integrated part of an
ecologically progressive politics in Britain and elsewhere.
Instead of a "home owning democracy" we now have public land and buildings sold off to remote 'investors' by indirect routes, and "there [should be] no such thing as society" as a major legacy of Thatcherism, as Guy Standing argues. It is a further 'plunder of the Commons'.
Meanwhile, a registered charity called 'Optimum Population Trust' or 'Population Matters' blames over-population and lack of birth control for shortages of land, etc. Eg, Population Matters: For a Sustainable Future.
Yet when land is owned by remote control and vast wealth, I am reminded of the practice of food supplies as 'commodities' and supplies of those 'commodities' are destroyed to increase price or value. That phenomena is clearly illustrated in a song by Tom Paxton, called 'Feed the Children' that he recorded around 1979:
Lyric content of Tom Paxton's song, 'Feed the Children'
"Feed The Children" lyrics
Tom Paxton Lyrics
"Feed The Children"
The cribs are bursting with ears of corn
A hungry cry from a child is torn
In all the shops no corn to buy
And all ask why
The grain is piled high in every bin
Still the wagons bring more in
It seems as if each pile would try
To touch the sky
And yet the child will get no bread
They'll burn it all down to dust instead
Destroy it all; do you wonder why
The price stays high
Feed the children
Feed them all
Feed the children
Let no war
Prevent the child from being fed
Jesus said
Feed the children
Feed the children
Feed them all
Feed the children
Let no war
Prevent the child from being fed
Jesus said
Feed the children
The market rises, the market falls
The market races, the market stalls
The price is hot, now the price is cold
The grain is sold
It changes hands, now it's sold again
It's in the hands of the middle men
The smiles are warm and their eyes are cold
They pay in gold
The mothers weep and the children cry
But people sleep and the children die
How many more must die tonight
'Til the price is right
Feed the children
Feed them all
Feed the children
Let no war
Prevent the child from being fed
Jesus said
Feed the children
Feed the children
Feed them all
Feed the children
Let no war
Prevent the child from being fed
Jesus said
Feed the children
Jesus said
Feed the children
I preface this announcement by Hilary Cross, Branch Secretary of both Worcestershire Trades Union Council and Unite the Union Community Section Worcestershire Branch, with a little introduction to the subject of 'precarious employment'.
'Zero compassion contracts? Not thanks!'
A placard wording I previously created for Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group in 2004
'Precarious employment' and 'the precariat'
A more well-known term than 'precarious employment' and the related social class 'the precariat' is 'zero hours contracts'. 'Zero hours contracts' existed before 2010 General Election gave way to Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.
It was pointed out at a Social Work Action Network (SWAN) event I attended that the 'welfare reform' measures enacted by the then Labour Government, that working conditions at, say, Pizza Hut, were such that the 'reserve army of labour' involved — even when present on the premises! — were only paid for the time that they were assigned to active services. Thus the Incapacity Benefit claimants being shunted onto Employment & Support Allowance as a lever toward getting them into the workforce as part of a 'reserve army of labour' were potentially being put at great risk, and the social workers, service users, academics and students who allied themselves to SWAN should thus oppose that policy promoted by investment banker turned 'welfare reform guru' David Freud.
(Essentially, for social workers to support policies that rendered people with limited capacity for paid work as part of the 'reserve army of labour' would be tantamount to neglect of social workers' duties to protect vulnerable people. See also https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2008/03/11/pathways-to-work-to-help-those-unfit-for-work/ but note that Community Care magazine has had a post-2011 history of deleting many benefit-claimant-friendly articles, apparently to favour their advertisers as social care has become more marketised.)
Wikipedia defines 'precarious work':
Precarious work is a term that
critics of globalization use to describe non-standard employment that
is poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and cannot support a household. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precarious_work
Dear Member
Quick reminder: Worcester Trades Union Council day of action on precarious employment Saturday 5th October, 11am - 2pm
Stalls and gazebo outside the Guildhall, High Street, Worcester, WR1 2EY.
Helpers needed for one-hour slots during the day.
Helpers also needed to set up at 10.30am and pack up at 2pm. Please let me know if you can join us and when.
Media obsessions with 'no deal Brexit' also deflect attention from the nastiness of what Tories are doing despite the human rights that the EU has helped bring into UK law.
